Some kind of madness. Kind of funny. Kind of sad.

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Home is Where the Heat is.

Pakistan is a hot, hot, country to live in. Always has been. Always will be.

We, who are natives and have lived here for the most part of our lives at least, are obviously used to the high temperatures. Our skin is tough. Or at the very least, already tanned. It’s in our genes already: how to battle the heat.

I mean, sure, we sweat and complain. How can we not? But then we complain about global warming and go about our daily business, be it that of a labourer toiling away with the back of the neck sunburned or that of a high-grade official sitting cozily in his centrally air-conditioned office. True, the former obviously has more right to complain but obviously, life isn’t fair at all.

The point is, ever since time immemorial, we have played hosts to electric load-sheddings. It has become as much a fact as the statement about Pakistan having an extremely hot climate.

I remember cracking open one eye in the middle of the night when I was little, uncomfortably sweaty, to see my parents sitting next to my brother and I, using hand-fans – pankhees – so that we can continue sleeping peacefully. In the feeble light of the emergency tube, their faces were a reassuring sight in the dark, stifling room, even though they were clearly not comfortable themselves.

I am now in my twenty-third year (yikes, I’m aging fast!) and the situation has not improved. If anything, it is getting worse.

What is interesting is that there is absolutely no mention of any concrete measures that would be taken that would support such a statement. It’s all talk, like always.

They totally deserve their offices to be trashed and/or burned, like the other day. They leave us no choice.

How long do they think asking people to switch off ‘extra’ lights or using air-conditioners on 26 degrees is going to work? Or even, to what extent are these effective, in any case?

These are short term measures, people-in-charge.

Before I die of this heat like so many of my countrymen, I would really like to see a new dam project started, some investment in solar energy – the sun doth continue to shine more – or some speculation in wind energy power generation methods.

Even a discussion or a mention perchance would do.

Maybe these people think they won’t be around in 2018 to take the heat?